[udadadadada]
“ihihihihi!”
“huiik!”
On the second-floor hallway, Ri Hyuk adjusted his glasses and continued reading his book.
As he tried once again to focus on John Keegan’s explanation of the interwar period between World War I and World War II.
“ihihihihi!”
“huik! Get away!”
“hihohya!”
[udadadadada]
“.......”
Thud.
Ri Hyuk snapped his book shut and exhaled deeply.
I won’t lose my temper.
These people are always like this—making racket near soone else’s room when it’s almost midnight.
“Sigh.”
He muttered to himself, breathing deeply to maintain inner peace.
Despite that, the chase didn’t stop.
“huak! huaak!”
“hihohya!”
Ri Hyuk removed his glasses and moved toward his bed.
He buried his face in the pillow and let out a roar of anger, then opened the door and stord out of the room.
[tudadadadada]
“Jiho-ya! Wait a second!”
“Ah, what is it!”
On the first floor, the maknae and the oldest brother were facing off across the sofa. Ri Hyuk sighed as he descended the stairs.
“What’s going on, making such a fuss at this hour?”
“Ri Hyuk, you’re just in ti!”
“.......”
The leader’s eyes glead as he smiled, blood still at the corner of {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} his mouth.
At the thought, Finally they’ve revealed they’re not human...! Ri Hyuk wondered—when Wooju spoke up.
“I just told Jiho to stand still for a mont, but he absolutely won’t. I said I need to talk to him for a minute.”
“Clean the blood off your mouth first! Honestly, I thought you were crazy!”
Jiho, still wearing his gaming headphones, looked thoroughly startled. The headphone cable swung at his waist.
How did I end up on a team with these fools? Ri Hyuk thought ruefully as he pulled a tissue and handed it to the leader.
“First, wipe your mouth.”
“Oh, right.”
anwhile, in response to the commotion from the living room, Biju and Junhyun erged from their rooms.
“What’s wrong?”
“Wooju hyung burst into my room with blood dripping from his mouth, shouting ‘hihoya! hihoyaaa!’”
“.......”
Biju blinked and moved closer, “Are you okay, hyung?” just as the leader addressed the gathered mbers with important news.
“I got word from Seokhwan hyung about our first-week sales.”
“First-week sales? Ah...!”
They realized it was Sunday night.
The term first-week sales made their hearts pound. Biju swallowed and asked,
“How did we do? Better than last ti...?”
“Yes.”
“Wow, that’s a relief......”
Biju sighed and sank into the sofa.
Alongside him, everyone’s heart rate quickened. They’d heard it was better than last ti, but by how much?
“So, how many copies did our album sell this ti...?”
The leader finally handed them his phone.
The sheer length of the number caught their eyes: a six-digit figure in the hundreds of thousands.
“Oh...!”
The leading digit, six, made Ri Hyuk’s heart stop.
[613,8**]
Junhyun stared with his mouth agape.
“That’s six hundred....”
“Six hundred thirteen thousand....”
Jiho snatched the phone from his eldest brother and brought it close to his face. The other three did likewise.
They stared at the smartphone like Paleolithic humans who’d discovered the device for the first ti.
Six hundred ten-thousand?
They’d sold 610,000 copies in a week.
Jiho pounded the sofa and asked urgently,
“And how many did we sell at ‘Falling Flower’?”
“That was 360,000 copies.”
They’d braced themselves for around 400,000 as a solid result.
But this was unprecedented.
If it had been rely good, they’d have cheered, but the overwhelming figure sent chills racing down their spines.
Their collective gulp echoed through the silent living room.
“.......”
They stared at each other in stunned silence.
Ri Hyuk asked,
“TeenSpirit sold... last ti?”
“Around 560,000 copies, I think.”
“.......”
Could this be real?
That thought tangled in their minds. He rembered being awed by TeenSpirit’s first-week sales last sumr.
How had this happened? Is this really okay?
Before joy could swell, fear gripped them—a fear of the unprecedented situation.
“Uh....”
At that mont, the leader, smiling broadly, opened his arms and said,
“Everyone.”
“.......”
“We hit a jackpot.”
Tension lted away instantly.
When Ri Hyuk regained his composure, he found himself bouncing on the carpet with the others, shouting in exhilaration.
“Waaaah!”
“Yaaaay!”
Arm in arm, they leaped across the carpet, joy and euphoria coursing through them so intensely it felt like it could withstand the end of the world.
It was their first genuine number-one in album sales—sothing they’d only dared imagine.
“Ri Hyuk hyung, are you crying again?”
“No, I’m not.”
He sniffled and shook his head, even as Biju exclaid from among the bouncing mbers,
“But it’s past the ti the downstairs neighbors should be asleep.”
“Oh...!”
They halted their celebration, hands still joined, and caught their breath.
“.......”
Smiles kept tugging at their lips for no reason.
Ten seconds later,
“......!”
“......!”
The five of them writhed silently like penguins in a joyous, wordless cheer.
As the singers celebrated their historic achievent, the Supple fandom felt similar excitent.
“Wow, wow.......”
Their voices rose in admiration.
[NewBlack 1st Full Album “DEEP BLACK” First-Week Sales Final]
Distributor Report: 613,8xx
Approximately 613,800 copies.
That was 50,000 more than the 560,000 copies TeenSpirit’s coback album recorded this sumr.
They really broke through 600,000...?
By day six of first-week sales, they’d wondered if they might surpass TeenSpirit’s record—but on the final day they rocketed past 600,000.
An absurd figure.
With NewBlack at number one on 610,000 copies and TeenSpirit at 560,000, the next highest was this year’s “Star : Into the Black” with 360,000.
Below that was in the 200,000 range.
‘Crazy...’
This is insane, sold so damn much
Wow, unrealㅋㅋㅋㅋ 610k
I expected good numbers, but not this much ㄷㄷ
Legit top-tier now
Just yesterday people were debating if they could break 500k; the scene is so dynamic
Need to check the China sales next
Congrats, I knew this would blow up
Fans everywhere were stunned.
anwhile, Supple mbers huddled together expressing joy.
We did itㅠㅠㅠㅠ
We can’t do the cute act anymore..?
We never did that anyway
So happy I can’t sleep
Didn’t expect it’d be this big;;
In this industry where nothing’s certain until it happens, even the fans hadn’t predicted this.
They were elated but also worried.
‘This is going to cause a stir.’
Such a predictable reaction, given the circumstances.
Sure enough, SNS and idol community boards exploded with posts.
‘This really caused a stir.......’
TeenSpirit fans, furious, were in full revolt.
Congrats on number one, jerk superstar
610k copies, really???
Screenshot: Why NewBlack’s first-week sales are questionable
International fans praising it, but can NewBlack even fill Tokyo Doㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
Acting like they were born number one is so annoying
Stop the comparisons
This seems fraud-worthy
They argued that even in trics where NewBlack had dominated, the album sales now gave them the final stronghold, and NewBlack had claid that too.
They’d always said NewBlack was popular with the public, TeenSpirit had fandom—now even that line blurred.
‘I get why they’re upset.’
Number one can only go to one.
Moreover, TeenSpirit’s year-end album is a repackaged album—typically selling less than the original release, except in rare cases.
So until next year’s full album, NewBlack held the first-week record for the year.
And there was no guarantee TeenSpirit would dominate again later.
‘Montum is what matters.’
After hits on national shows, NewBlack even scored with a studio album.
No matter the claim that NewBlack had mass appeal and TeenSpirit had fandom, the facts couldn’t be denied.
Fans narrowed their eyes reading the comnts.
‘They’re crossing the line.’
So started posting rebuttals and evidence against the fabricated rumors.
It would be best to let it lie quietly, but trolls stirring the pot only made the boards chaos.
So is it NewTeenSpirit now?
NewBlack’s the one top now
Double top, right?? NewBlack just caught up with Teens
Damn these guys, build statues for them at ho
The artists get along, why can’t the fansㅋㅋ..
While intense debates raged, most reactions leaned toward NewBlack’s lead.
I don’t want to join this fight, but using only first-week sales to claim board number one is odd
They dominated national shows and the charts—what more proof do they need?
Criteria vary, but ask ordinary people who the top idol is, they’ll say NewBlack
Fans mocked their public appeal, now they flip when they beat them in sales, unrealㅋㅋㅋ
Soon the comnt mood shifted again.
Tired of the top-top discussion, it’s nauseatingㅋㅋㅋ
Obsession over first-week sales is bizarre;
When TeenSpirit set records we cheered, why the sour grapes now
Both sides are extre, hope they calm down
Neither side needs to be so aggressive; general public couldn’t care less about board rank
Readers blinked at the false equivalence—“They started it!” they thought.
When they struck back, they were told to quiet down.
It felt like a strategy to paint fans as the villains since NewBlack’s rise was unstoppable.
‘This is hardcore.......’
Opposition that seed mild before had turned into an all-out war.
‘It’ll be noisy until year-end.’
Maybe it was a rite of passage.
Similar fan wars had flared between TNT and TeenSpirit; peaceful handoffs never existed here.
As things settled sowhat, posts analyzing the situation began to appear.
[But it’s really astonishingㅋㅋㅋㅋ (NewBlack First-Week Sales Trend)]
2015: 70,000 (Wind Flower) → 120,000 (Nine)
2016: 220,000 (Winter Sleep) → 360,000 (Falling Flower) → 610,000 (Empire)
Crazy growth ㄷㄷ
The attached graph shot almost vertically upward.
From 70,000 to 610,000 in just over two years—nearly a tenfold increase.
Especially this year: triple growth in one year.
Gyuho, won’t you list on Lemon?
Seeing this is even crazierㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
Soone said their sales follow Fibonacci—8, 13, 21, 34, 55... were they serious?
Next album 800,000 copiesㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ hilarious
But NewBlack’s first-week always exceeds the sum of the previous two, did you know?
Oh, really?
Overall, the K-pop pie is growing; last year, topping at 200,000 was huge
Everyone marveled at the continued upward trend—dostic and international fans alike kept pouring in.
‘What will happen next...?’
While adaptation was expected, Supple fans realized today that NewBlack had truly claid number one.
And they wondered what could top this.
They felt unreal yet proud.
For artists and fans alike, it was a sleepless night.
It felt like they’d been up all night.
“Uuuaah......”
Their hearts raced until nearly 5 AM, reality feeling distant.
Stupid thought, but sleep felt like it would steal everything away, so they couldn’t rest.
In the morning, they woke sprawled on the sofa with their younger brothers.
“You’re up, hyung?”
“Uh......”
Junhyun, in sweats, towel-drying his hair, looked just out of the shower.
“You sleep?”
“No. Everyone else was asleep, so I went to the gym to work out.”
“I envy your stamina.”
Junhyun’s body seed to emit a white mist in a lasting hallucinatory effect.
Biju, checking if he was asleep, reached into the fridge and held up a water bottle.
“Want to see sothing cool, hyung?”
“No.”
Like a waiter, Junhyun poured water from the bottle into his mouth as if from midair.
Ignoring his proud gaze, Ri Hyuk checked his phone.
The charts still glowed with their full album entries, and “Empire” sparkled at number one.
ssages of congratulations lined up.
...From Manager Cho, a photo of the CEO rubbing his eyes and sniffling was attached.
“What should I reply?”
“‘The CEO’s crying face is adorable...?’”
He sent a thank-you ssage with an emoji.
Still surreal.
Of course, having great album sales didn’t necessarily an they were finally number one forever, but it felt good.
“These are the things we dread about when we debuted two years ago.”
“Yeah.”
Junhyun smiled.
As they chatted, the others stirred on the sofa.
They shook the maknae awake.
“Get up, grubworm.”
“I’m going back to sleep. I’m staying a child of the new nation.”
“Wake up, Jiho hyung.”
“.......”
The maknae perked up, fully awake.
It was 10 AM.
After quickly eating breakfast with tired faces, they stopped by the salon for makeup before their schedule.
Today’s destination: Jamsil.
They’d perform at the Seoul Sports Complex Baseball Stadium next to the main arena they visited for yesterday’s duty-free concert.
“Cheer up, hyung.”
Jiho patted the tense Ri Hyuk on the shoulder in the car.
“Even if you get hit by Junhyun’s pitch, you won’t die.”
“Quiet......”
“Haha! This is so fun!”
It was Ga 3 of the 2016 baseball playoffs: Ri Hyuk threw the ceremonial first pitch, then swung at empty air as if batting.
Though he didn’t have to hit anything, he was nervous.
“It’s been fun so far.”
Ri Hyuk gave him a kind smile.
“There were ups and downs, but these will be good mories. I’m glad we did this together.”
“Quiet.”
“Hmm? I think I heard a ghost talking...”
They all laughed with the maknae.
“Here, eat this.”
“Ah?”
Biju offered a lock-n-lock container of apple slices.
“.......”
Biju, why do you look at with those pitiful eyes again?
Seeing his brothers treat him like soone crossing an uncrossable river made his eyes mist over.
He watched Junhyun still spinning the air with his shoulder.
“Junhyun, take it easy.”
“I’m good at baseball, hyung.”
Junhyun smiled warmly.
“I was on the elentary school team. I never once hit a person with a pitch.”
Then he added,
“I think the catchers got hurt sotis.”
“.......”
“That’ll be fine.”
His reassurance did nothing to comfort him.
Jiho turned his head and asked,
“By the way, Junhyun hyung, you look really happy today.”
“Yeah, it’s fun to play baseball again. Plus I know soone on the team here.”
“Really?”
“We lost touch, but we were close.”
Today they were doing the first pitch for the KG Dragons, and one of their players from elentary school was on that team.
“I really want to ask if you were always that frail in school.”
The maknae’s bold determination made them laugh.
As they laughed, Ri Hyuk glanced toward the distant sign reading Seoul Sports Complex.
Crisp.
The apple Junhyun had held crumbled to powder in his hand.
“It exploded.”
“.......”
Without realizing it, Ri Hyuk called out to Wonseok sitting in the driver’s seat.
“Hyung, turn the car around. I want to cancel this schedule.”
“We’re already late.”
As their younger brothers clapped and laughed, everything before his eyes blurred.
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